Here’s an awesome review by Dale Berg of 96.9 The Oasis The worlds smooth jazz place.

The ever impressive composer, record producer, keyboards player and UK’s #1 independent Smooth Jazz artiste James Colah has once again got me trippin on his latest single called ‘Trippin On Your Smile’ and that is definitely what I found myself doing! Almost everything on this song (including vocals) was composed, performed, produced, mixed and mastered by James at his James Colah Productions Studio. The pure genius guitar work comes from Cameron Pierre who is better known as the guitarist with UK’s legendary (CBE and OBE honoured) sax man Courtney Pine. This single took me on a trip to some exotic place on a beach with my toes in the sand looking out on a beautiful ocean with not a care in the world. It was a great escape that I can take again and again every time I listen to this song. Very rarely do I experience this kind of reaction to a song, but this NEW single from James Colah could be, I feel his best so far. He’s set the bar pretty high, in fact this track took me higher than his previous hit single ‘Take Me Higher’. This is exactly what I would expect from London born James Colah who has once again displayed his talent with this impressive release. James Colah sent me a pre-release copy to check out and all I kept saying to myself was “OMG, THIS IS AWESOME!” I also love the way the flute and vibe sounds compliment the track perfectly. The finished product is a work of art like a painting that paints a picture in your mind, which this song will do. ‘Trippin On Your Smile’ is nothing short of what I’ve come to expect from this incomparable smooth jazz artist. This single is a must download and I’m privileged to be able to add it to the playlist on my station. Dale Berg 96.9 The Oasis – The World’s Smooth Jazz Place www.969theoasis.org“

Very well put, I’d say and I couldn’t agree more! Naturally, being a guitarist myself, I totally treasure the excellent work contributed by Cameron Pierre, who put his particular flavor of icing on an already deliciously sounding cake, figuratively speaking! This might well become the next Smooth Jazz charts topping song, James Colah! Amazing work!

This has been bugging me for quite some time, and apparently, I’m not the only one: Francis Graham Dixon, former side man of John Stevens, asks in his brilliantly written blog post, why such exquisite bands like Fourplay, who manage to deliver a top notch concert after having been on tour for more than a year, seem to be passed over by the general Jazz press. In particular, he complains – and rightly so, if I might add: “Those lucky enough to witness their performance at The Grand, Clapham at the end of a European tour were treated to a spellbinding night of music combining emotional power and intensity with peerless virtuoso brilliance; hardly a surprise when you consider that this group of musicians comprise some of the very best instrumentalists and songwriters of any era, and all at the top of their game. Yet I have seen no other review of this brilliant gig in the jazz press. Why is this kind of music generally so ill-served by the specialists?”

I don’t know the answer to that, but I had to find from personal experience then (25 years ago) and more recently that there seems to be an understanding among some traditional, straight-ahead or Modern Jazzers that makes anything along the lines of melodic Jazz – for lack of a better word – somehow unworthy of them, sort of “below” them. When I say “them”, I refer to a roster of pro musicians, whose phone never stands still with calls for gigs, recordings and/or co-writing sessions. All that strictly in the realm of what I refer to as Modern Jazz, as in: Hard to play/master, almost impossible to read, even harder to follow in a live setting, often oblivious to considerations of sound, stage appearance and other aspects of the entire stage act.

Of course, this is the type of “grey zone” that you will never get a straight answer to, with a mild chance of getting a little closer to the truth when pushing the topic late at a post-gig party, with everyone reasonably intoxicated and less in control of the ongoing self-monitoring most of us will employ to a greater or lesser degree. Could it be there is no “good” reason? Could it boil down to nothing but “marking one’s territory”? Or would I have to – God forbid! – use the “E” word? As in envy? Because less eclectic/academic, but by no measure less virtuoso performances like the one we saw in London or Munich or probably everywhere else on Fourplay’s tour was met with openly articulated appreciation as in enthusiastic applause instead of the very reserved clapping at your typical Jazz club setting, because audiences would hush during softer passages instead of neglecting the artists on stage by continuing their (loud) chatter? Because some might have even taken it as far as – Oh Lawdee! – dance to the songs? In other words: Have fun! instead of pretending this was late class at music college?

I don’t know the answer to my hypothetical questions and maybe my questions are nothing else but polemics. Maybe I resorted to a bit of un-PC writing in a desperate attempt to see bridges instead of ditches, the common denominator instead of the dividing quotient, the unifying LOVE we share … for music. Or was I way off base altogether? You tell me… :)

As a Reverbnation citizen, artists get notified of upcoming opportunities. These opportunities happen in the U.S. for the most part and come at a small submission fee. For various reasons, I’m unable to front the money for an itinerary and/or tour on U.S. soil at this point. So I might be missing out on great chances of getting seen and heard by you… which is…shall we say unfortunate?

If I get to enter the top 50 candidates, spread the word! Or better: If you happen to live in the UK or feel like a little trip to a live music event, consider showing up at one of the 50 Regional Heats performances!

The performances from those regional heats will be uploaded to the competition site and an ensuing public voting process will decide over whether or not the artist proceeds to become one of the top 10 semi-finalists. Well… but first things first. :) I entered four submissions so far, three songs and a video with audio (terms say you can, as long as they’re not the same song and different in style – which I’d say they all are). Making some noise on my behalf will certainly raise the panel’s attention levels, so… shall we do this?

In any case… these will be exciting weeks and months to come. Stay tuned!